Middle Eastern Salad: Tabbouleh

Mina Holland
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Don't be put off by the amount of parsley, it's a key ingredient in this dish, not a garnish. Best enjoyed with other mezze such as any of these dips such as Baba ganoush, Labneh or Muhammara. Having said that it easily combines with Western ingredients like grilled tuna or chicken. For more on this history of this dish see salads of the Middle East

Optional: Yotam Ottolenghi suggests a teaspoon of allspice.

Ingredients

40 g bulgar wheat
1 Juice of 3 lemons
1 handful flat leaf parsley
1 handful mint
4 large tomatoes
6 spring onions
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch Sea salt and black pepper

Details

Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Recipe Type: Salad
Difficulty: Easy
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 0 mins
Serves: 4

Step-by-step

Rinse the bulgar in water several times and then let it soak in the juice of one of the lemons for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and drain when the time has lapsed.
Wash, dry and finely chop the parsley with a very sharp knife. It's really important to do this by hand (a blender will make it too pulpy). Do the same with the mint.
Finely but roughly chop the tomatoes, draining off the excess juice, and add the herbs and chopped onions.
Sprinkle the bulgar wheat all over, then dress with the remaining lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
Serve with some little gem lettuce leaves dipped into the salad around the bowl's edge. These can be used to scoop it up.